23 Apr 2019

Fonterra mulling Tip Top offers

12:12 pm on 23 April 2019

Fonterra has moved to the next stage of its plan to sell-off its Tip Top ice cream business.

Tip Top Ice cream factory in Auckland, New Zealand.

A spokesperson for Fonterra says it has received a number of offers for its Tip Top ice cream business. Photo: 123rf

A spokesperson for the co-operative said it received a number of offers from buyers last month and is now considering them.

Follow-up offers are due on 29 April.

She would not say how many offers it received or who they were from.

Fonterra announced it would sell the Tip Top business last year as part of its plan to slash $800 million of debt off its books and cut capital expenditure by at least $221m.

It said it was selling Tip Top because the business required a level of investment beyond what it was willing to make.

Earlier this year, a former Fonterra employee told RNZ that Fonterra had significantly under-invested in its ageing Tip Top factory and that it misled consumers when production problems occurred, which Fonterra declined to comment on.

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